Emergency Indigent Legal Help
divorce attorney Tennessee Aug 8, 2026
My (49F) husband (49M) is facing a wrongful conviction and associated jail time. Location: Washington state. The jurisdiction is in Tennessee. He divorced his ex-wife 2.5 years ago. She comes from a wealthy family and her attorney was covered by her mom, while my husband ran out of money early in the process. He was unable to continue to fight past mediation, and so agreed to a very unfavorable set of terms. The one in question was paying her what at the time was roughly half his income in alimony, for 10 years. Since then, his original job was eliminated. He found other employment across the country, but it paid less, and he fell behind. Long story short, he is on his 3rd job since then, as employers in his field keep downsizing. He makes significantly less than when the original agreement was made, despite working 2 full time jobs. We regularly use food banks, receive utility assistance, are behind on rent all the time, and lost our car. His ex-wife is suing him for a laundry list of obligations he has been unable to meet, roughly 45 items, and has recently added criminal contempt as she maintains he has had the ability all along, but chosen not to pay. We obviously cannot afford an attorney. Legal aid advised him to request a public defender and a remote hearing at pretrial. Yesterday, at the pretrial hearing, the judge told him he was canceling the pretrial hearing, and that my husband must appear in person, and disconnected the call. He has 11 days to trial, and we don’t have the money for him to go. If he’s absent, he will be sentenced to jail and arrested. If he loses these jobs, my income alone cannot cover our basics (we were already struggling). We will be homeless and uninsured, and she will sue again for non-payment and insurance lapse (this is her fourth petition in a year). Is there any way to get a public defender or some other type of advocacy?
